Adaptability
by heliosKAISER
Summary: "This is the path that I have chosen. I cannot back down or run away no matter how much I wish to. I will become a warrior to protect my friends!" Self Insert. An actual look at OCs and self inserts.
1. Forward

So, this forward letter before I post the first chapter is to tell you what to expect from my fanfic:

This fanfic completely ignores 3D and most of the stuff that was published in the Ultimania magazine. I'm ignoring 3D as it turned the story from a hard to follow dumb and cheesy story into complete Shonen drivel which also marked the day that Tetsuya Nomura finally threw his hands up into the air and said: Fuck it! You guys think my story is stupid now!? Fine, have stupid plot twist after stupid plot twist! And I'm not using any of the info from the Ultimania magazines because I don't want to track down obscure shit and I really don't to as Kingdom Hearts runs on Shonen anime and JRPG logic as if they were laws of physics.

Oh and this story takes place eleven years after II and during a decade old war.

Organization XIII ARE Villains: Look, I know how some of you think that they just want hearts and that somehow they're good people. Don't read this fanfic because I'm going to portray them as evil and everyone in-universe will see them as evil due to their antics to obtain hearts in CoM, Days and II. And I don't care if you see them as good people. What comes to mind when I think about Organization XIII is Xaldin mind raping Beast (One of Sora's good friends) into believing that Belle doesn't love him to get a powerful Nobody out of him and then taking the Rose and kidnapping Belle as a last ditch effort. Or Luxord raiding and pillaging Port Royal to create more Heartless so Sora and any other Keyblade user will defeat said Heartless and power up their Kingdom Hearts. And let's not even get into how much of this stuff they did off-screen. Roxas, Namine and Axel/Lea also DO NOT have nice things to say about them.

The SI and his OC friends are the main characters: This is going to turn off a lot people from reading this fic and I completely understand why. You want to read about your favorite characters not some author playing hero with other characters that you'll probably not care about after you read it. I have good reasons like trying to avert the whole i haz a kyebled!11! I git 2 advanture wif sora!1!1 cliche that fucking plagues the self-insert fics in this fandom. Well that and the whole I got sucked into a video game! cliche but that one isn't exclusive to Kingdom Hearts. I need to get the next part out of the way...

Let me ask you a question, if you were a highly accomplished adventurer gearing up to save the world and were saved by someone who you didn't know, would you let them go on an adventure with you that will decide the fate of the world/s? No, you wouldn't. You'd thank said person, hell even give them a reward but you wouldn't let him go with you for several reasons. One, being you do not know them. And I know that sounds really redundant but I want to clarify why. First, how do you that they didn't get lucky in that fight? Or if they're working for the person who is trying to destroy the world be it a god or a normal mortal man and is trying betray you at the most opportune time or they have ulterior motives and will leave you hanging when you really need them. So, no you wouldn't.

And the reason why I went on this tangent is because whenever I read KH fan-fiction the authors seem to add a poorly thought OC to the plot for seemingly no reason. I know that Kingdom Hearts is a very optimistic series but when people just join for seemingly no reason at all several alarms just ring in my head because it's like the canon cast bringing a shady hitchhiker who looks like he'll try to mug you and steal your car on to their ship to fight monsters. So instead of just joining Sora and his friends because *insert reason here*, we'll be going to a military academy for two arcs which will go out of it's way to world build, go over how the self-insert and his OC friends will train, sprinkle cameo's from canon characters and have Final Fantasy characters from games other then VII, VIII, and X show up.

While we don't start off strong we quickly get ahead due to being in a war and unlike canon characters who learn everything at once due to being very balanced (Sora says hi.) or due to having their adventure by themselves (The BBS trio say hello as well.) we specialize in what we do. So if, say the self-insert gets training in martial arts, using weapons and armor then he'll become a top-notch front-line fighter. That's all he'll be able to do but he'll be REALLY good at it. Or a character who uses Black Magic (Offensive magic like Fire and Thunder. And status ailment spells like Sleep, Poison and Silence) that can rain magical death and destruction in the right and precise way.

Here are all the skill-sets of all the self-insert and OC's.

Male Monk/Warrior SI: Eventual mastery of two fantastical martial arts with general hand to hand fighting techniques based on Krav Maga and Muay Thai which are THE fighting styles if you want to fuck someone up, various weapons training, marksmanship skills with every type of gun and thanks to the supercomputer in his head, tech wizardry. He can't use magic at all and his resistance to magic is horrible. Also, because of his lack of magic he has to rely on items for healing if the party's main healers aren't there.

Female Black Mage and later Mystic Knight OC: Keyblade user, offensive magic mastery, rapier weapon training and Mystic Knight training (heavy armor training, binding complex spells like Ultima and Flare to weapons, endurance and strength training). Doesn't have a real answer to long range attacks like archery or guns. Also, thanks to her Keyblade which lets her basically be the best Black Mage ever extremely hampers her ability to learn and use White Magic (defensive magic, healing magic and light magic attacks like Protect, Cure and Dia) so she has to rely on items for healing if the main healers are gone.

Male White Mage and later Paladin OC: War-hammer weapon training, White Magic training, patching up wounds with a first aid kit if he's Silenced. Paladin training (heavy armor training, sword and shield training and binding light magic to weapons.) Before the Paladin training, he doesn't really have anything to offer when fighting non-Heartless/undead and is just better healing wounds anyways. Also doesn't have an answer to long-ranged attacks.

Male Ninja/Time Mage/Summoner hybrid OC: I know I'm giving this OC a crap ton of abilities but back in the old days, Summons were earned via buying them in shops but mostly defeating said summons in a battle. Can manipulate a person's individual time (spells like Stop, Haste and Slow) to buff up the party and debuff the enemy. Can also open up portals to get through secure buildings and teleport the party. With his ninja training he can sneak up and kill enemy soldiers before they even notice him, he can also throw weapons with stunning accuracy and use elemental (fire, thunder and water) scrolls though he has to write them before a fight. His main weakness is that he can't take a physical hit worth his salt. He can cast Regen which heals the target bit by bit over time but if the enemy is quick about it or he's Silenced, it won't matter so items are still better.

Female Bard OC: Keyblade user. Sound manipulation via literal magic music from her harp (firing 'notes' which hit like actual bullets, making air 'bombs', making wind vortexes, shattering the sound barrier. Can sing various ballads to either heavily de-buff the enemy or buff up the party but she can only sing one ballad at a time. Rapier training (so she can use her Keyblade more effectively). She can heal by playing certain songs on her harp or by singing but she has to stop singing/playing what ever song she's playing and buffs or de-buffs will end right there. And like the last OC, she can't take a hit at all.

Male Dark Knight OC: Keyblade user. Darkness user. Heavy armor and sword training. Uses Darkness in ways that typical darkness users don't even consider. Utterly immune to darkness's corrupting nature. Later learns more fighting techniques to round out his skills with a sword. His skilled use of darkness is both his greatest strength and weakness. He doesn't have an answer to light magic and that becomes his kryptonite. Unlike most people here, he later learns to use bows and Black Magic so he can have a ranged attack.

Male Alchemist OC: Master marksmanship with every type of firearm, mixing two or more items into another more powerful item. Is the only one that doesn't have an answer to close ranged combat in the group so he pairs up with melee oriented fighters of the group. Can make items in non-combat related situations only. Can pretty much MacGuyver any type of potions, cures and tonics if given enough time. Is just as fragile as a mage.

Female Paladin OC: Archery and Heavy Armor training, light magic and some healing magic. She later to learns to use a sword and shield during the time-skip, but is still dependent on her archery skills as her main form of attack.

Max: Goofy's kid! Unlike the usual weapons that he gets like two shield or a skateboard, he gets an actual weapon. Just what? You'll see... I'll be nice and even give you a hint: Since his father is always traveling with Sora and thus not around to train his son, Max had to get training from a certain dragon knight...

Robert Edward O. Speedwagon:

And I know this is very Final Fantasy but we're getting trained by people from a world that is a composite world of multiple versions of the same world from three spin off games and one main series Final Fantasy title so (at least I think) it makes sense.

Strategy is Key!: The most awful pun aside, since most of us specialize in one thing (temporarily) we'll have to plan and be more strategic then the canon characters will ever be. We'll be using teamwork in junction with just not fighting fair at all because we'll be good but not good enough like the canon cast where they don't have to not fight fair. And even after the time skip, we'll be using teamwork as there's only so much you can do by yourself.

Romance: All of the pairings are Canon x Canon and OC x OC. This would be the time I reference the Don't cross the streams! line from Ghostbusters but that would re- oh. Anyways, here are the pairings: Sora x Kairi x Riku as an OT3 (One True Threesome or a poly-amours relation between the three of them), Roxas x Namine, and all the canon pairings for the Disney movies.

As for the OC's, well... I'm just going to post the parings here.

Black Mage OC X White Mage OC

Monk/Warrior SI X Ninja/Time Mage/Summoner OC (Yes, that's right.)

Bard OC x Dark Knight OC

Paladin OC x Alchemist OC

And lastly, I can't vouch for the quality of writing for the prologue as I wrote it on the seat of my pants and it SHOWS. Hell, I didn't really have any idea other then parody. And then I realized that I only read 'Kingdom Hearts III' fan-fics. The self-insert just used a shit ton of weapons that I ripped off from an MMO that had nothing to do with this series, he had a shit ton of psychic powers and his characterization ever really went anywhere or never really suffered. Now? Well... You'll see...

I honestly brainstormed more then I wrote it. Half of the OC's outright didn't exist and the other half weren't planned at all other then being a person just caught between all the bull-crap that they get into because they're soldiers/adventurers. I'll have the prologue up soon. 


	2. Prolouge: End of the Ordinary

Well now, I'm finally going to write my KH fanfic. In first person prose no less. So pray for me.

* * *

Prologue: The End of the Ordinary.

Hello, my name is Fala and if you're reading this then the following events must have happened.

I am dead, I'm MIA, I'm in enemy lines doing sabotage and recon or I'm relaxing and don't want to be disturbed.

If you are asked to find me for information or for reinforcements then I am obligated to tell you my appearance for legal reasons. I have dirty blond hair with emphasis on 'dirty'. My hair is really thick to the point where I can't have long hair. I am pale. Like white as a sheet pale. Being inside and playing video games all the time will do that to you. I am a little bit shorter then most people. I have an average build. There's a scar that goes down my right eye. And lastly, my eye color is a dull red.

I usually wear a old tan summer coat. It used to be worn out but the nanomachines in my body repaired it and the nanomachines actually make adjustments as time goes on. It's even big enough to be considered to be a badass long-coat. My t-shirt is a plain white one. My track pants are dark blue. What? You thought I was going to have impossible clothing like jeans or something like that? Please. And my tennis shoes are grayish black along with white laces. I wear a leather black glove on my right arm and a finger-less glove on my left. Also, to hide my eyes' unusual eye color, I wear sunglasses. I even wear them indoors.

I'd didn't start out looking like this either, but the costs of war demanded payment. My eyes were pale blue and I had two finger-less gloves on both hands and I didn't have that scar.

And why am I bothering to write a report like this? Well, this... is the story of the simultaneous destruction and rebirth of my life. I debated a long while on writing this, but I decided in the end that it would be good for me to get it all out there.

It all began on a normal Friday. I just entered my home carrying a package that was from my brother apparently. My mom who was leaving on a vacation wanted to see me before she left, she picked me up after I got off work and gave me said package. I took off my shoes and headed toward the dinner table at top speed.

I quickly set the box on the table and I grabbed a knife from the kitchen. The anticipation was really getting to me. I drove the knife right through the tape with care. Upon opening the package, I found a letter from my brother, a shark-tooth pendant and a weird looking mix between a drawing tablet and one of those iPads.

I read the hastily written letter carefully.

Dear ***,

If you are reading this letter then you got the package. Good luck, you'll need it!

P.S: The instructions are on the back!

Love, ****

'What the hell is this!?' I thought. My brother was normal, especially compared to me. Did something happen in college?

Shaking my head, I placed the pendant on the screen and pressed the power button on the device.

A blinding ray of light erupted from the screen which completely caught me off guard and I actually fell. Not my greatest moment.

Getting up on my feet I approached the table slowly and carefully. The light began to quickly die down and I could see the pendant warp and change.

The glass-like material that surrounded the shark tooth had an eerie green shine and the tooth itself was steel instead of bone and seemed to be sharp as a blade. There were also various bits of small wires and circuitry that I could barely make out.

I took hold of the pendant and examined it carefully. It seemed relatively normal, at first. I quickly felt a sharp piercing sensation. I yelled in pain and tried to get the pendant off by clawing at it but sadly it got even worse. Then I noticed a pool of blood forming around the pendant.

I felt several small sharp pains along quickly travel from my hand up to my arm and into my head. At this point, I had no idea what was going happen from here. Was I going die because of my brother's fucking torture device? Or was I going to endure it and survive? Only one way to find out...

"I will LIVE! I WILL LIVE!..." I kept on repeating those words as if they were my ticket out from this situation, my salvation if you will. As if it a greater being listened to my words the pain had finally stopped. I was so relived I started to cry. What? It was the first situation in which I didn't know I was going to live or not. Deal with it. However...

 **(CYTRON INSTALLATION COMPLETE. TO ENSURE SAFETY OF SUBJECT WHILE SYNCHRONIZATION OF NANO-MACHINES AND OTHER FEATURES, SUBJECT WILL BE PUT IN SLEEP MODE IN THREE...)** A robotic voice intoned and wait, it's counting down?!

 **(TWO...)** I rushed to a nearby couch. No way in hell I'm I just going to collapse into the frigging floor. That'd hurt.

 **(ONE...)** I quickly tossed the various items in numerous directions that were on said couch that my mother and her boyfriend have piled up items on said piece of furniture. Don't ask.

 **(...ZERO.)** By the time the countdown ended I was already on the couch. Waiting. Possibly for something that may change my life. For better or worse? Even now, I still have no idea if it did impact my life except change me from an almost completely nerdy shut-in to a soldier.

 **(ENTERING SLEEP MODE.)** My loss of consciousness was instant. Normally, I'd have no dreams. Like completely blank. But instead of that I had several images popping into my head.

I was in some kind of state-of-the-art training area.

Melee training with various weaponry including hand to hand combat...

Marksman training with all sorts of firearms...

Visions of building various gadget on a table...

And they were really high-tech. Laser weapons high tech.

I really didn't try to make sense of it. Instead of it feeling like a dream, it felt like I was reliving memories.

Memories that I don't have any association with.

I woke up with a loud banging on my door. My head was pounding but I ignored it.

I immediately deduced that those visions were brought on by the nanomachines...

The banging on the door got even louder, making my headache worse.

"Calm the fuck down! I'm opening the door. Jeez..." I shouted. What time was it?

I took out my iPhone while heading toward the door. I was shocked by what time it was. I slept for four hours. I quickly put my iPhone away and I open the door and I find my friend, Nick Carlyle.

He was white, he had a crew cut, red hair and brilliant green eyes. He had a much better build (Much more muscular then athletic.) then I could ever have. Nick had a scar on his knee that covers his entire knee. It was from a small fire when he was little. He wore a grey T-shirt with a logo of NASA, bright red shorts and white tennis shoes and socks. I raised my eyebrow in confusion as Nick was dressing like it was summer in winter but I realized that it was probably alright as he did this a lot.

"Hey, you ready? I don't want to wait." Nick said. He was really impatient when he wanted to be.

"U-um, kind of. I've been sleeping for like, three or four hours." I replied, after a short yawn.

"I told you get ready yesterday!" Nick yelled. He could also be kind of a dick if things didn't go his way.

Kind of like my brother.

Then again, no one really had the hindsight of what would come to fruition that day.

l

"I packed my computer yesterday, okay? Your titties. Calm 'em." I snarked. I hastily went downstairs to get my computer case.

Said computer case was on my messy bed. I grabbed it but it disappeared in a flash of green light.

( **ITEMS STORED.** ) A quiet but noticeable and robotic voice stated.

'What the crap was that!?' I thought.

( **I AM THE MAIN AI UNIT FOR THE CYTRON DEVICE. MY SERIAL NUMBER IS GWI248-A80074-B9521.)** The AI's droning voice was annoying.

'Too long. How about... Sandalphon?' I was weird with my mythology references. The name came from an angel who the twin brother of Metatron, the mouthpiece of God. Sandalphon's body was so long that it's said that a normal human would take 500 years to travel his body. He was also in charge of deciding a human's gender in the embryo state and delivering prayers to God.

( **NAME REGISTERED. I AM NOW SANDALPHON. HOW MAY I SERVE YOU?)**

'Well, I'd like to know what this Cytron-'

"What's taking so long?" Goddamn it Nick!

"Your face!" I shouted. I made my way up the stairs and began to put on my shoes.

"Where's your computer?" Nick asked. Shit!

"Uh... I decided not to bring it as I have a pretty bad case of writer's block right now and we're going to have a Super Robot Wars marathon so..." I lied on the spot.

"Oh, okay. Let's go!" Nick walked out the house and to his truck.

And he bought it like a idiot. Nick was so dumb, I swear.

I locked the door behind me and I headed for the car. I... really don't remember what it looks like. I know it was old but reliable. Oh! It was a Chevy 2010 Camero. And it was yellow. Yeah, I just remembered that.

I got into the car and I buckled my seat-belt. Nick looked like he was trying to get something out of his pockets. I was wondering what was taking so long.

"Hurry up, you're letting the cold air in!" I yelled. It WAS the winter season after all.

"Hold on- got it!" Nick exclaimed. He was holding to what appeared to be a weird light-saber handle. He then put it in the tray in-between the front seats.

The handle was yellow and on both sides there were these weird crescent things on the side. A hand guard perhaps?

 **(SCANNING DEVICE... IT IS A WEAPON KNOWN AS A 'BEAM KATANA'(1) , A LOW TECH WEAPON REPLICATING THE EFFECTS OF A BEAM SABER(2).)** Sandalphon droned.

"Where the hell did you get something like this!?" I exclaimed. Sandalphon sent more information to my brain. Apparently, those crescent things are powerful generators that make this Beam Katana on par with many top tier models. They're very impractical due to where they're placed. It's like putting a coolant system for a giant robot inside it's shield (3). You just don't do that.

"I got it off an internet auction." Nick answered.

"You, got a pseudo light-saber off of what, E-Bay?" I asked, incredulously.

"Y-Yeah, I did get it from E-Bay, actually." He said, in a surprised tone.

"Sure, why not?" I mean, I already have an AI and nano-machines in my head and body, so yeah, sure why not?

Nick finally got in the truck and started to drive. On the trip towards Nick's apartment, we talked about the light-saber thing. It DOES work! I fired it up when we got onto the highway and... accidentally I burned a small hole through the roof. Nick was pissed but relented (a bit) when he saw how exposed to the elements I was.

I also got a few answers from Sandalphon about the Cytron. Apparently it's a device with many functions, however I could find information only about one: Weapon and item storage. The weapons and items are stored as data and and can be summoned by writing the weapon or item's data into a series of code for a program. Since that sounds unbelievably complicated even for the tech guy (AKA: Me.) I just left it to Sandalphon.

After a long and surprisingly uneventful (aside from the beam katana stuff) car ride, we finally got to the apartment. When I got out of the car, I noticed that the sky was pitch black. Since it was near Winter Equinox, I didn't question it.

When Nick and I got into the apartment, we heard the water running and then it stopped. I assumed that Sophie was done taking a shower.

Our friend, Sophie was at an average height and had a wiry build. She was bit dark skinned but mostly light colored. Her hairstyle was very tomboy-ish, her hair was slicked back and very neat and tidy compared to my hair. If I remember right, she was wearing a tie-dye lavender t-shirt with a forest green skirt that went down to her knees. We thought at first that she messed up with her hair dye as she did cos-play as Lucina from Fire Emblem Awakening for the anime convention before the adventure but we weren't sure.

"Honey! We're here!" Nick half yelled.

"Can you wait in the living room?" Sophie answered.

"Uh, sure." Nick replied.

Nick and I sat down on the couch and began discussing which Super Robot Wars (3) game to start off with. We were stuck between Alpha and Judgment(4). When we were about to come to a decision, Sophie walked into the living room looking livid and had a good reason why.

More of her hair was even more blue then last time. Only a few locks of her hair were her original (hazel) color.

"I'm seeing a doctor this weekend. This- this isn't normal..." Sophie trailed off.

"Did you botch the dye mix somehow?" Nick asked. Not a too far off guess considering Sophie was a beginner at cosplaying.

"No, I followed the instructions to the letter!" She insisted.

"I'm just worried, all right? We'll calm down and enjoy giant robots, all right?" Nick said in an effort to calm her down. It worked. A little bit.

Sophie sighed. "Fine... What game did you guys decide on anyways?" She asked.

"Uh, Judgment." I answered. I wanted Alpha because I liked (read: worshiped) the UC Gundam series but since Sophie seemingly wasn't feeling well, I just gave up right there. Plus there was Full Metal Panic and Gundam SEED which is what she liked. I DID the like former anime but I was thoroughly disappointed in the latter. And Judgment also had a translation patch.

"Cool. I'll get the Xbox (5) ready." Nick answered.

"I need to go to the bathroom." I announced.

I readjusted my pants after going to the bathroom.

Ah, that was nice. Now time to-

 **(ENEMIES DECECTED. ENTERING COMBAT MODE. INITIALIZING WEAPON SET 1...)** Sandalphon intoned.

With a quick burst of white light, I was armed to the teeth.

In my right hand, I had a beam saber. The hilt and cross-guard were thin and the hand-guard was close to the hilt. The 'blade' was shaped into three isosceles triangles that were connected by the top of the of the triangle. The second and third triangles were smaller then the first. The 'blade' was red. I later named it King Crimson due to the main color of the weapon.

In my left, I had a pistol. It had a dragon motif and the main color was sky/neon blue. The pistol had a large rectangular barrel and the muzzle was formed like a dragon's mouth. A dragon was stenciled in on the left side of the barrel. The handle was well designed and fit my hand like a glove. I called it Dragon's Dream due to it's overall dragon motif.

"W-what the hell!?"

I wasn't ready for what was going to happen next. Neither were my friends for that matter.

I exited the bathroom quickly to find three pitch black blobs quickly emerging from the ground and taking shape. They were as about to knee-length, their heads were bug-like as they had cricket-like antenna. I actually identified them as Heartless or more specifically Shadows rather quickly, due to playing the first two Kingdom Hearts games a lot when I was in middle school (among other RPG's) fanatically.

In hindsight, this would be an easy battle but this was our first 'life or death' battle and we were in a small-ass apartment filled with easy to break things.

I rushed forward and swung King Crimson at the Shadow in front of me, slicing it in half.

I was surprised how easy it was for me to just take it out in one strike but I didn't dwell on it as my friends needed me. Three Shadows were between me and the living room. I rushed into the hallway and aimed Dragon's Dream at the first shadow. I hesitated in my shooting of the Heartless as I rarely ever held a gun in my life. The Shadows quickly closed the distance and pounced on me in attempt to steal my heart.

"Oh shi-" I hit the ground with a loud thud.

"GET. OFF!" I screamed. I was flailing my arms and legs wildly, trying to throw them off. I survived my brother's torture fest, no way in hell was I going to let some mooks of all things, kill me.

I got the two Heartless that were holding my arms off and the last one that was on me was looking dizzy due to my constant struggling. I rammed the muzzle of Dragon's Dream into the Shadow and pulled the trigger, piercing it's body with green light and destroying it in one shot. Lasers!? Sweet.

I quickly got up and fired Dragon's Dream at the Heartless on the left of me, twice. The second shot hit it square in the face. The third Shadow tried to pounce at me again but I stabbed as it was in midair with King Crimson, right in the chest area. I rushed to my friends, seeing that they were done with finishing off the remaining Heartless. Sophie was weaponless somehow. She didn't take any martial arts classes as far as I know. Did Nick protect her? Hmm, I'm not that surprised that if she did rely on him. If it weren't for my weapons, the Cytron and Sandalphon, I'd do the same.

I looked around the living room and everything was in shambles. The windows were shattered from the inside, indicating that more then one type of Heartless got into the apartment. The furniture was destroyed for lack of better words. Pieces of the couch that we used for years were EVERYWHERE, hell one of the pieces was lodged in the remains of our TV. Our TV...! Our television was beyond repair. The frame and screen were just decimated. I don't know how else to describe it. Various parts of it were somehow smashed, crushed and melted all at once. All the games, movies, music and other media that we collected over the years were decimated. My anguish at the loss of our hard work was indescribably powerful. My sorrow of the loss of our hard work was interrupted by a raging Sophie.

"Where the hell were you... and where did you get those weapons!?" Sophie snapped. My ears...

"Oh, I don't know, I was fighting Heartless by myself! What the hell did you think I was doing!?" I shouted back and completely missing the second question...

Sophie seemed to be fuming. We were about to yell at each other again but...

"Calm the hell down!" Nick half yelled. I was surprised that he was being really rational due to how hotblooded he usually is.

"R-right. We can't stay here. We'll go to the police station. It'll be fortified and it has lots and lots of guns." I was really, REALLY trying to calm down and failing. I turned by back to my friends.

"We may have a problem with that..." Sophie trailed off. The dread formed quickly through out my body. I instinctively decided to NOT like the worried tone in her voice.

"What do mean that we'll have a prob-" As soon as I turned around I was frozen in shock. My eyes quickly honed on what she was holding. Her weapon that was in her hand. It was... a Keyblade. The hand-guard was shaped like a blue snowflake. The handle was thin, round and had the color and consistency of marble. I swear there was a strong current of wind going around the handle. Anyways, the blade was made of lightning with thunder occasionally sparking out. The 'key' part of the weapon was a flame.

This isn't happening. This. Isn't. Happening.

"GODDAMNIT!" I roared. Just when I thought life stopped drop-kicking me in the balls for a second, it winds up for a another round. I hate my life.

"Okay. Okay. New plan. We go to Nick's car and..." I trailed off trying to gather my thoughts.

"And what?" Sophie asked, impatiently.

"Drive into fuck all no-where, that's what." I finished.

"Why can't we go to the police again?" Nick asked. I forgot that Nick only played Kingdom Hearts I and II once. And that was a long time ago.

"Because the Heartless are attracted to the Keyblade and they won't stop until they get Sophie's heart! Didn't you pay any attention to the story!?" I shouted.

"No, I thought it was stupid." Nick answered.

Of fucking cour-

"Hey! If we're in danger then we need to leave, not waste time bickering!" Sophie interrupted. She was right.

"We should get supplies then if we're going to leave." I said, heading toward the kitchen which was surprisingly intact. I turned off King Crimson and set it on the kitchen counter with Dragon's Dream to begin searching for supplies. And then I realized that it was a bad idea to be apart from my weapons, so I pocketed both weapons as soon as found the safety and turned them off.

I gathered everything I could: Dry foods, sealed beverages and several portable tools. I was grabbing the trash bags in a cabinet below the sink when Nick approached me, holding a radio.

"I saw those weapons that you were using, where did you get those?" He asked. I sighed in frustration.

"I don't know." I stated plainly.

"You don't know?" He asked. Nick's voice sounded like he was really tired of this shit. And I couldn't blame him either.

"I don't know. I just got done with adjusting my clothes after going to the bathroom and then there was this flash of light and BAM! Weapons." I explained. I was still having trouble mustering up the courage to explain that I now have nano-machines in my body and a supercomputer in my head.

"I've never seen a Beam Katana like that before and that gun..." Nick started but then he just sighed in frustration.

"Well anyways, I wanted to give these to you..." Nick said as he was reaching in his back pocket. He fished out a pair of leather finger-less gloves.

"Uh, thank you? Not that I don't mind these but why did you them to me?" I asked while putting them on.

"I was going to give you those for your birthday when you got a Beam Katana from your brother but..." Nick didn't finish that sentence as if he was afraid of my reaction. I knew exactly why he stopped. He was worried that I'd overreact again due to being attacked by Heartless, the horrific and monstrous things that we thought only existed in our imaginations and that could destroy worlds if left unchecked. Not to mention we don't know anything about how our families are doing. So, trying to stay calm is a massive priority now.

"I see. Well, let's check on Sophie and head outside if she's ready." I said.

We quickly head to Sophie's room where she was trying to get an extra change of clothes for all of us. All the clothes that she got from our rooms were in a forest camo backpack. Sophie changed clothes for more mobility. She wore a simple white t-shirt with the Exalt symbol from Fire Emblem Awakening and black running pants that she used to go outside and exercise with. However we noticed something that troubled us deeply.

Sophie was crying. The now bluenette was not just crying but downright bawling.

"F-first my hair was turning blue and now this! I was on my way on becoming an accountant like I wanted and..." She tried to continue but opted to sob into her hands. Oh, shit. That's right, as long as she holds that Keyblade the Heartless will hound at her until she dies or they steal her heart. She'll probably never have a relatively normal life again...

Nick approached Sophie and hugged her gently. This would be the part where I would have exited the room but I felt that she needed the both of us.

"It's going to be fine... You'll see." Nick was trying to comfort her even when he was distraught as well.

This is why I think he's cool. Or, well, can be cool anyways.

"B-but, you were almost done with med school! I ruined that for you! All because of that stupid thing!" Sophie said, trembling in both sadness and anger. If I were in her shoes, I'd think I'd be worse.

"I-I know. But, we need to keep moving." Nick said, trying not to cry.

"You know, you can always try again." I piped in. No way I was going to let one of my friends despair.

"But I don't know if I'll be able to." Sophie said, confused.

"Well, to paraphrase a certain movie that you like, as long as you have the will to go on, you can always find happiness. So you'll be able to find a way to make your dream come true in a traditional way or if it comes down to it you can do it in a roundabout way, even if it takes you a while." I said, stating what I felt to be the obvious. To this day, I can't explain how eerily calm I was.

Sophie smiled through her tears and nodded.

"Let, uh, get out of here." She said.

"Lets." Nick said.

We grabbed our supplies and hastily headed toward the door. Little did we know that this would be the last time that we would ever be in this apartment again.

After quickly putting our shoes on, we left the apartment in a mad dash to Nick's car. However, when we got to the entrance to the apartment, we found that the entrance doors were utterly decimated. The frames for the doors were torn apart and broken glass was scattered everywhere.

We saw Nick's car intact, but not for long as it was crushed by a large midnight black fist, giving it the consistency of a pancake. A Darkseid... Where's a giant robot when I need one...

"My car! I don't care how big it is, we're kicking it's ass!" Nick loved that car very much. Not cargo ship levels as he loved Sophie but st-

THUD.

 _THUD._

 **THUD.**

 _ **THUD.**_

Those footsteps... Oh, shit! It's in front of the building! A loud crash boomed above our heads.

"What the hell was that?" Sophie asked, scared. We we all terrified, really. I mean fighting Shadows? That's fine, as we had obviously good weaponry and Shadows were basically the goomba, the easiest enemies to get rid of. Darkseids? Nope. And even if I did have a giant robot, I'd probably get my ass handed to me anyways.

The Darkseid's hand forced itself through the ceiling, sending rubble down. A sudden flash and I saw... my death. Large pieces of rubble crushed me, with blood quickly seeping out onto the floor. Hmm? Three pieces of decent sized rubble were falling toward me. They were just the right size to crush me.

Just like in the vision...! I aimed Dragon's Dream at the rubble and fired at the falling debris. They were destroyed easily descending. How did I do that!? How powerful is this gun anyways? Deciding to stop questioning this for now as it wasn't the time for it, I noticed that Nick and Sophie were looking okay and across the room. Nick was shielding Sophie, like all lovers should.

The black giant pulled it's fist out of the building and looked into the hole, at us. I still remember the sight of those large, putrid yellow and beady eyes staring into my soul. If my brain wasn't hooked up to the super computer in my head then I wouldn't have able to sleep for weeks.

'We are so dead!' I thought, while panicking but trying not to show it. The earth outside began to crumble and... fall!? And soon as the remains of the earth only reaching inches to the remains of the main entrance of the apartment complex, I felt lighter. Like light as a feather.

"Hey guys, do you feel ligh-"

A girlish shriek interrupted me. That didn't do my headache any favors. It wasn't from Sophie as the pitch would be much higher, so... It was Nick, floating in the air! He was flailing his arms and legs in an attempt to get back down. We threw the supplies on into the ground. Or attempted to, as soon as we Sophie and I quickly grabbed both of his legs so we could pull him back down but we only succeeded in getting in the same situation that Nick was in.

"Oh shit, what do we do now!?" I shouted upon the realization at the fact that we had no backup plan, no real way to get out of this mess. Realizing that I needed to secure my weapons, I put Dragon's Dream in my left pocket of my coat and zipped it up. I quickly switched hands to put King Crimson in my coat's right pocket and zipped that pocket up as well.

At first, our ascent toward the top was somewhat slow, giving us time to get disoriented but then we started to quickly gain speed in our ascent, disorienting us even more. Soon we involuntarily exited the building via the hole the Darkseid made. Everything, the apartment complex, the land around it, the Earth itself being torn apart. And the realization of why we were floating in the air just hit us like a goddamn brick to the face. We were being sucked into a black hole. If I could scream, it would have been there.

I only had so much time to observe the black hole before a object impacting my head and I blacked out. From what Nick and Sophie told me, I got hit by a plank of wood.

"You need to wake up! ******* (6), wake up!"

I suddenly found myself on a small island just below the black hole. Nick and Sophie were shaking me wildly and yelling at me respectfully. Without them, I'd have turn into a Heartless or I'd have died a pointless and painful death, I swear. I noticed that we were on an island not too different from the time Sora had to defend himself against the Darkseid's onslaught only just replace the sand with snow. I quickly got on my feet, took out my weapons and resumed a battle stance.

"C-can you fight?" Sophie asked in concern.

"We'll die if I don't and besides it's not like I can runaway..." I responded.

The Darkseid's hand was already in the ground, forming a pool of darkness. Shadows were already forming and heading toward us in a small pack, determined to steal our hearts. I quickly came up with a plan as fast as I could.

"Okay, two people need to deal with the Heartless horde and distract the Darkseid while one of us delivers a blow to the Darkseid's head." I said, in a slightly nervous voice.

"Like in the manga?!" Sophie shouted. I actually was ripping my plan straight out of the manga.

"Yup! It'll be easier to hit it when it has it's hand in the ground because the Darkseid will have it's head near the ground!" I answered.

The hoard of Shadows finally closed the distance and the two Heartless that were the vanguard of the group jumped at Nick and Sophie, claws ready. Nick was already out of the way and entered a defensive battle stance. Sophie... got hit by the Heartless, clawing into her left arm after she tried to dodge.

I quickly closed the distance between myself, Sophie and the Heartless. I kneed the Shadow in the face. I knew the attack wouldn't hurt it but I couldn't use King Crimson or Dragon's Dream, as y'know. they're laser weapons and I didn't want to take the change that it would harm Sophie.

Sophie clutched her arm in pain and pointed her Keyblade at the three shadows. A fireball the size of a baseball erupted from the tip of her Keyblade and smashed into the side of one of the three Shadows, killing it. The other two charged at Nick. One of them jumped into the air while the other rose up from the ground, trying to claw at Nick's legs. Nick side-stepped the pouncing Shadow and countered it with a horizontal slash, slicing it in two. Nick promptly kicked the shadow who was clawing at his knees to get a little bit of distance and followed it up with a stab to it's chest.

While I was watching Nick duke it out, the Shadow that I kneed was trying to attack me from behind. I quickly turned around to try to counter the Heartless. Unfortunately, the Shadow was in mid-air and inches away from my face. I was blinded by a flash of light, with the sounds of thunder and lightning deafening my eardrums. I recovered quickly thanks to the the nano-machines in my eyes and ears. I looked around and saw Sophie with her Keyblade pointed skyward. I also noticed that the Darkseid forming Shadows slower. This was THE opportune time to attack. We all looked at each other and nodded in understanding.

We charged at the giant Heartless, sliced through the rest of the Shadows and began wailing on it's head. We attacked with the desperation of injured animals fighting to stay alive. I was slashing at it mercilessly with King Crimson, Nick wasn't hitting the Darkseid's head as fast as I was but was putting massive power in his swings and Sophie was stabbing the giant Heartless with her Keyblade. She wasn't putting strength in her stabs but considering the electricity and fire that was running up and down Sophie's Keyblade, she didn't need to.

As we wailed on the giant Heartless' head, the island began to shake. At first it was a small earthquake so we just powered on through it as we were in a fight with a Darkseid and any weakness that we showed would be the death of us. However it quickly grew worse as the tiny spec of land that was left of our world began to brake apart. Noticing how the land was disappearing before our eyes, we stopped hitting the titan of shadow with our weapons and began to slow edge away.

"Put your weapons away!" I yelled, turning off my weapons, quickly shoving them in my coat pockets again and zipping them up. Nick turned off his Beam Katana and put it in his back pockets. I don't remember what Sophie did with her Key-chain. We quickly grab each others hands and did what we could: Held on for dear life.

Again gravity ceased to exist again as we got sucked into the black hole. We barely managed to hold to each other as we got closer and closer to the black hole.

In that instance, I felt that my very sight itself fade out of existence.


End file.
